President Ram Nath Kovind to present Padma award to 43 people

NEW DELHI: President of India Ram Nath Kovind will confer the Padma Awards to 43 persons in an ceremony at the Rashtrapathi Bhawan on Monday. This is the second batch of Padma awards to be conferred this year.

On Sunday night, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh hosted a dinner and addressed the award recipients at an interactive session. He said that the country was proud of all the Padma Awardees as they had a major contribution in the nation’s progress. Congratulating them, he said that their self-less service was locally recognized till now but with these awards it received national recognition.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who was also present at the event, said that every Padma Awardee worked hard in his or her field without any expectation of returns from the society. She appealed to media to highlight their achievements which were “adbhut, aviswasneeya aur akalpaniya” (Extraordinary, unbelievable and unimaginable). She specially mentioned about the contribution of Awardees from the ASEAN countries.

Several award winners shared their work and experiences on the occasion.

MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju, Secretary to President of India, Sanjay Kothari, Home Secretary, Rajiv Gauba were also present on the occasion.

The awards -- Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri -- are announced on the eve of Republic Day every year. These are given in different fields and disciplines such as art, literature and education, sports, medicine, social work, science and engineering, public affairs, civil service, trade and industry.

The first lot of 43 awardees of the Padma awards 2018 were honoured at a special function held on March 20.